And wilson pratt



(No Model.)

0. EJWALDEOK.

Inlaying Buttons and other Similar A rtioles; No;' 236,383.

Patented Jan-.4, I88].

JQW JJ-m,

-PETERs. PNOTO-LITHOGRAPHER, WASNINGTON D. C

UNTTTn STATES: PATENT TTTce.

CHARLES E. WALDEGK, OF PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA, ASSIGNOR TO GEORGE P.FARMER, OF MONT CLAIR, NEI'V JERSEY, AND WILSON PRATT, OF PHILADELPHIA,PENNSYLVANIA.

INLAYING BUTTONS AND OTHER SIMILAR ARTICLES.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 236,383, dated January4, 1881.

Application filed November 19, 1880.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, CHARLES E. W'ALDEOK, a subject of the Emperor ofGermany, residing in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, have invented anImprovement in InlayingBut-tons and other Similar Articles, of which thefollowing is a specification.

My invention consists ofan economical mode, fully described hereinafter,of inlayin g plastic material with flakes of pearl or other particles ofornamenting material in well-defined masses through the medium of paperor other fabric to which the said material is cemented, the main objectof my invention being to make inlaid designs of the ornamentingparticles in buttons and other objects.

Figure 1 is a perspective view of a common form ofornamental button;Fig. 2, views of the tablets used in my invention; and Fig. 3, views ofbuttons made according to my invention.

In carrying out my invention I first sift or distribute the flakes orparticles of crushed pearl or metal over the surface of a sheet of paperor fabric having an adhesive coating, so

that the said flakes or particles will, when the coating becomes dry orhard, he firmly united to the backing. The latter is then cut intopieces of the desired shape, each of said pieces forming a tablet, as,having a face ornamented 0 with the adhering flakes or particles. (SeeFig. 2.) Prior to the pressingof the plastic material in the molds toiorin the desired objects, one of the tablets w is inserted in each ofthe recessed lower dies of the mold, the

5 ornamented face of said tablet being downward. Vthen the plasticmaterial is pressed into the die the ornamented tablet will be embeddedtherein, and will be firmly retained when the material becomes set, theorna- 0 mented face of the tablet being exposed on the face of themolded object and forming thereon an inlaid design of definite form, asshown in Fig. 3.

Any desired means may be adopted for re 5 taining the tablets w in theirproper positions in the (lies of the mold. In the present instance theinvention is illustrated as applied (No model.)

to the manufacture of buttons, and each of the tablets has acentralopening adapted for the reception of the peg, whereby the central 5orecess of the button is formed; but in manufacturing other articlesmeans differing from this may have to be relied upon for retaining thetablet in position in the die.

In some cases the flakes or particles of crushed pearl or other materialmay be secured to the backing by means of a paste or cement capable ofbeing dissolved, and the tablets may be placed in the mold face upward,so that after the objects have been molded the backing to which theflakes were secured may be removed. the flakes, however, adhering to thesurface of the object and formin g an inlaid design.

I am aware that slabs of pearl, ground or polished, and then shaped bytools or dies, have been embedded in molded objects of plastic materialto forminlaid designs; but such a process is very expensive, and is notso generally available as mine, the slabs of pearl being usually flat,so that they cannot be applied to the ornamentation of objects havingrounded surfaces; whereas the ornamented tablets made according to myinvention are comparatively inexpensive, and can 7 5 without injury bebent or curved to suit the shape of the die into which they areintroduced.

I am aware, moreover, that molded ornaments have been embedded inplastic material, and that buttons have been ornamented by applyingpulverized coloring material through stencil-plates while the substanceof which the buttons are made is in a plastic condition; but theditt'erence between my invention and these modes of ornamentation willbe readily understood from the foregoing specification.

I claim as my invention- 1. The process described of embedding crushedor pulverized ornamenting material 0 in plastic substances through themedium of paper or other fabric to which the said material has beencemented, substantially as described.

2. The mode described of producing butoperation of forming the same,substantially IO tons and other objects with well-defined inasspecified. laid designs, the said mode consisting in, first, Intestimony whereof I have signed my name cementing flakes of pearl orother particles of to this specification in the presence of twosubornamenting material to paper or other fabric; scribing witnesses.

second, cutting therefrom tablets of the de- OH. E. WALDECK. siredconfiguration; and, third, embedding WVitnesses:

the tablets in the plastic material of which the JAMES F. TOBIN,

buttons or other objects are made during the HARRY SMITH.

